The Cat Lady - Halloween Special Review (PC game)

Susan is no longer with us; she’s gone to the world and, even before her suicide, she’s been gone a long time from society’s apathetic eye. But even after taking copious amount of sleeping pills Susan is still unable to escape her miserable existence as she awakens in a field, unsure of whether this is life, death, or somewhere in between you take control of her life and guide her staggering footsteps through the world, searching for a way out; of where, neither you nor Susan truly knows. Whereas death is supposed to be the end of a story for Susan Ashworth, it’s the beginning.

Developer: Harvester Games

Genre: Adventure/Horror/Point and Click
Release date: December 1st 2012
Platforms: Microsoft Windows
ESRB: M - Mature

‘The Cat Lady’ follows Susan’s journey back to life after she meets an old woman who wants to strike a deal with Susan to allow her the peace she longs for. Susan is instructed to seek out and destroy several monsters that lurk in the world of the living on behalf of the old woman. Despite Susan’s misgivings she finds herself powerless to resist and, after a brutal and bloody way of sealing the deal, finds herself transported back to ‘life’ but with a catch; she’s now temporarily immortal. For many, this would be a wondrous gift but for an exhausted, suicidal woman it’s an ironic curse that points and laughs in Susan’s face as she treks on with her journey and seeks to complete her task just so she can rest her weary soul and finally be allowed to die. 

It’s a cryptic, surreal and often disturbing journey that encourages you to lose yourself in the darkness of depression before guiding you out of it again. This is a game where the monsters are not aliens with guns or gloomy figures lurking down the other end of a corridor, this is a game where you are the monster in the dark as Susan is flung between anger, doubt, regret, fear and anxiety as she longing for death yet craves revenge. The creatures you encounter are reflective of the demons of Susan’s soul that, as anybody who has suffered from depression will tell you, are not easily vanquished. There will be a blood, and not just a little bit, the game is unashamedly macabre and Susan is forced to undergo several brutal deaths only to be cruelly resurrected again. The imagery of the game is morbid as well and at least every single chapter has a way in which the player may allow, or actively encourage, Susan to kill herself. There’s plenty of black humour in the game as well which I found appealing as, though this game touches on very serious subjects, it’s easy to become jaded to the horrific nature of things when you’ve lived with them for so long. Whilst the game has some extreme scenes of gore these tend to be offset by slower, storyline focused cutscenes so it’s not just a blood-fest, it’s a very well written and intelligently explored blood-fest. If anything, I would describe this as a game that is beautifully horrific. 

Whilst the narrative is by far its strongest point the puzzles are actually fairly good, though not extremely difficult, if anything they are there to provide you with a means to an end rather than as something to frustrate you and slow your progression. Since the game is mostly about atmosphere and storyline I didn’t mind that the puzzles were a little easy but, saying that, they were no walk in the park either and I had several moments of backtracking and getting confused as to what I had to do next. Importantly, the puzzles didn’t feel repetitive and the constant switching of environments helped in this aspect as nothing ever felt like a chore to proceed and it was all very much necessary and interesting. Some puzzles feature some obscure clues about how to complete them that are not just restricted to visual ones, there’s a fair few aural cues which are great for the atmosphere of the game. Generally, I found the audio very good even though the voice acting came across as a little stiff now and then and there’s a very irritating sort of static noise that’s quite loud and intrusive yet entirely intentional. I would have preferred that to have been either non-existent or with the option of turning it off as it was distracting and often made the characters hard to hear. The musical score is brilliant and I have no complaints there and, whilst I said the voice acting could be a little wooden at times, it occasionally did suit the atmosphere and I get the feeling that the developers wanted everything to be very drab and unemotional. Unfortunately at times this style did not suit the on-screen events. 

The beautiful horror of this game is wrapped up in its storyline but enhanced by the unique art style that is a cross between animated newspaper cuttings and old Polaroid photographs giving the entire game a gloomy yet striking appearance. Just like Susan’s life, everything feels a little pasted together but despite this the animations are smooth, the facial expressions are detailed and everything just flows so perfectly. Visually, the game feels very much like a 1990s game which for a point and click puzzle game is just the perfect era for me, especially with it being a horror game as it reminds me strongly of much beloved games such as ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’, ‘Sanitarium’ and ‘Phantasmagoria’. Amusingly, the game also feels quite 1990s due to the very low resolution that it plays in but this doesn’t bother me so much. There are a couple more problems with ‘The Cat Lady’ though that does tend to spoil the experience a little; the controls for instance are fairly unresponsive, especially during dialogue when you’re trying to skip lines you’ve already read. Susan also does walk incredibly slowly and at one point I was quite sure I had time to go make a cup of coffee in the time she walked from one side of the screen to the other. When you’re lost and backtracking to find things, this is extremely irritating though it may just be my own impatience. Simply, a ‘double clicking to skip to the next screen you clicked on’ feature may be good as I recall several point and clicks doing this in the past. 

Complaints aside, I was utterly entranced by this game and it’s by far one of my favourite point and click adventure games, even with the huge spattering of horror and gore that’s been slapped all over the place. It’s a brilliant example of mature themes that have been done right in a way which is thoughtful, sensitive and intelligently where it doesn’t shy away from controversial issues yet doesn’t make a mockery of them either. If themes such as suicide, mental illness, depression and death offend you then this is not a game you’re going to get on well with as it is utterly unashamed in its approach to the reality of how some people want to die and will go to any length to do so. Whilst the gore side of things can be sometimes a little over the top I found it shocking yet, oddly, refreshing as there have been plenty of these sorts of games that never go too far and tend to pull back before things go too far. ‘The Cat Lady’ never pulls back, it’s in it to win it and I love that about it. The story is fantastic, full of emotion, suspense and drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat and second guessing yourself the entire way through. Susan herself is a brilliant character with genuine character development as you see her go from shy, meek and weary to a woman with a purpose, confidence and strength and quite simply it’s a pleasure to guide her through these changes. If there’s one game you play this Halloweeen, make it ‘The Cat Lady’, you won’t regret it.

The Good: 

• Strong character development
• Interesting, captivating storyline that keeps you guessing
• Mature themes done right
• Striking yet low-key appearance is very appealing
• Decent inventory/dialogue puzzles that challenge but don't frustrate
• Very surreal and disturbing atmosphere

The Bad:

• Some audio issues such as hit and miss voice acting/distracting static
• Some may find the use of gore over the top
• Controls can sometimes be unresponsive, Susan walks too slowly

The Score: 9/10 

Final thoughts: "This has definitely become one of my most beloved point and click games, everything about it feels a bit 90s adventure game which I love and frankly it's been too long since I played something this surreal and this creepy."

Lovely Planet - Review (PC game)

Who said twitch shooters had to be set in grisly wartime settings or cerulean alien worlds? Lovely Planet may look incredibly sweet in its 'Katamari', chibi style dressings but underneath it all is a game that will beat you mercilessly into the ground with its rainbow encrusted, spiked, bouncing apple type, addictive thing that will quite literally drive you to madness. Let’s try this again. Lovely Planet is an FPS that’s set in a rather cute looking world where you must have a stunning set of reactions and the ability to memorize pathways to perfection in order to get through the extremely challenging levels. Sounds easy? It’s not, it’s far from it, it’s quite possibly the first twitch based FPS that’s genuinely addictive and also so punishing and cruel that it doesn’t mind coming across as a bit airy fairy and cutesy because it knows it could totally have you if it wanted to. You will lose at this game, many many times, you will become so familiar with the game over screen that you’ll be able to recite it from memory years after putting away this game for good. Quite simply, this game is a lying bastard that tries to convince you it’s totally approachable and easy to get into then floors you with the first punch. Now that you know how difficult it is, let’s examine it in a bit more detail. 

Developer: QUICKTEQUILA 
Publisher: tinyBuild
Genre: First-Person Shooter, Action
Release date: 31st July 2014
Platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac
ESRB: Unrated (involves shooting enemies but the bullets are cubes)

Lovely Planet is a first person shooter where you must complete a series of short levels that are no longer than one minute long and which typically last about 30 seconds. There are initially over 80 levels but there are more once you complete all of them; typically this serves as an additional stab to the side considering how long it takes to complete those ones in the first place. In order to complete each short level you must navigate platforms, avoid hazards and defeat all of the enemies presented to you and by missing just one you will have to restart that level. The courses are extremely challenging and this is partially due to the constraint of having to hit certain things before you hit the ground which results in a great deal of trying and failing to aim in mid-air. Thankfully you’re granted an infinite number of ‘bullets’ with your one and only weapon but there’s little use just spraying the screen with the purple cubes that you shoot. The key to mastering this game is to know the course by heart and to act with speed and precision which is not an easy task due to the sheer number of levels and the seemingly impossible situations the game puts you in. The slightest mistake will kill you whether that’s being hit by a single bullet, falling out of the world or touching anything that’s red there are so many ways to end up restarting the level. It’s basically one of those games where you master a small part of it, then get stuck on another bit, then creep a bit further along as you overcome that particular challenge, and then get stuck on another bit… and so on. 

To ramp up the pressure the game encourages a healthy dose of competitiveness among its players through leaderboards and record times which serve to constantly remind you at how much you suck compared to the rest of the world. Not that that’s a bad thing, in fact it’s a very appropriate feature because part of what makes this game so addictive is seeing yourself improve, whether that’s in comparison to others or not. Critically, the controls of the game can sometimes be a little ‘off’ where inputs aren’t always recognized but this is a fairly rare occurrence and is not frequent enough to impact on the overall game. Strangely there’s no actual aiming cross-hair either so firing shots is harder than in a usual FPS game but, after some practice, you’ll find yourself firing with accuracy you didn’t even know you could manage as everything becomes almost instinctual. Besides, at a mere £3.50 you can excuse a couple of blips on what is otherwise a fantastic game. 

Considering I don’t usually enjoy anything of an FPS nature this is genuinely a fun, albeit frustrating, little game that may attract all sorts of gamers to try it out either for a quick blast about or for some seriously dedicated gaming to get through all of the courses. Either way, it looks and sounds great, with adjustable sensitivity in the controls and plenty of features to keep you occupied for hours. Whilst the sound effects aren't exactly the best they're overwhelmed by a very upbeat music track that reminds you that everything's going to be ok, even when you die for the 100th time. If you fancy a challenge, check this game out now by purchasing it on Steam here.

The Good: 

• Fast and crazy funtimes
• Good for those who enjoy a challenge
• Nice escalating level of difficulty
• Unique art style for this genre
• Decent soundtrack that's surprisingly not annoying
• Simple mechanics

The Bad:

• Lacks some variety in terms of gameplay
• Occasional lag with the controls
• Incredibly frustrating game that may put off many people
• Unable to compare yourself directly to friends is disappointing
• Sound effects aren't very good particularly enemies 'dying' noise

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "I suck so much at this genre of games that I'll likely never get to see the ending or the later levels. I tried, I failed, I moved on with my life. That doesn't stop it from being an amazing game, I'm just awful at rote memorization of levels." 

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far) - #1: Watch Dogs

Watching the release trailer for ‘Watch Dogs’ was exciting, I had remembered its reveal at E3 2012 and that futuristic characterization of Chicago looked and sounded stunning, imaginative, game changing. As the release date crept closer the hype didn't die down; it intensified and I too was excited, I was expecting something along the lines of 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' I guess but with a bit more 'Grand Theft Auto' thrown in for good measure. There was to be an open world; that part was important. Open world settings all the rage right now and if your game lacks one then prepare for criticism as its such a commonplace practice now in this genre of games that there's simply no reason not to. The hacking spin was, of course, extremely important as well as there's simply not enough good quality, intelligent futuristic games out there on the market right now so 'Watch Dogs' proved to be a valuable addition to the genre. So, did it live up to the hype? Unsurprisingly, no. In typical modern AAA game fashion it was little more than a huge wave of anticipation followed by the sound of lots of games clicking into consoles, boot screens, updates, some silence as players had a little whirl in their new playground followed by a gradual feeling of, 'well this is a mediocre experience' coupled with an intense desire to find something positive to defend their pre-ordering decision. Why is this? So many reasons, none of which make this a bad game (I cannot stress that enough for these posts) but plenty of which make it a disappointing game.

#1 Watch Dogs

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action/Adventure 
Release date: 27th May 2014
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
ESRB: M - Mature

So after all that disk tray clicking and riding the hype train for two solid years what I ended up getting was something that looked pretty, though unworthy of a 'next gen' console, but which was weighed down by a predictable storyline, bland characters and a half-assed attempt at integrating hacking into a traditional action game. You play as Aiden Pearce, who turns out to be the most boring character ever to be conceived, who is doing all of this illegal stuff as a revenge mission because his niece was killed and sister kidnapped. In terms of storyline, that’s about it. It’s all extremely generic and clichéd and despite the rather disasterous situation poor Aiden's been put in somehow remains  completely unemotional. Perhaps it's the diabolical awful voice acting that's most noticeable in Aiden as his droning, stereotypically hoarse 'tough-guy' voice is simply a chore to listen to and does very little to offer him any character or emotional development. 

Voice acting aside, Aiden himself is a relatively poor protagonist and whilst I'm not getting into the debate of 'he's like Batman because he's on a revenge mission and is a criminal to stop criminals, and has a hoarse voice' I will point out that he has no redeeming qualities. He's an incredibly inconsistent character and never owns up to or accepts the terrible things he's actually doing to people resulting in a you having to play as someone who is formally known as a 'dickhead'. Whilst I accept that sandbox games tend to leave moral choices to the player this is no 'Skyrim' or 'Dragon Age' type game; Aiden Pearce is a character already conceived with scripted sequences and set choices, he has a backstory, sort of, a motive for his actions, in a sense, and a personality, if you can call it that. Games like Uncharted dealt with the moral inconsistency in a pretty simple way; they ignored the rising kill count and just gunned on with the storyline as though you'd never mowed down those hundreds of innocents. I don't like that, but you know, fair enough, you can't control a player's actions. Some games like 'GTA' and 'Saints Row' just let you loose on the world and don't apologize for how much of a sociopath you are; that's also fair enough, they leash those psychotic actions in and make them their own and that's kind of what I wanted 'Watch Dogs' to do, but it didn't; it copped out of it. So whilst you're running around as a vigilante, becoming more of a mass murdering monster hacker rather than a force for good, the game spends the rest of its time playing catch up and trying to account for why you're doing all these things. If I was supposed to pity Aiden for bad things happening around him, I didn't. He's pretty much impossible to love and even though his actions often turn out justified you only tend to find that out after you've already killed someone making it conveniently ok now. Well, that's not good enough really, nobody goes around just murdering people based on hearsay and scant details, nobody except Aiden and, for a vigilante, that makes him a pretty unprofessional one. Worse still, the guy doesn't even enjoy himself when he was doing all of these bad things so you can't pass him off as a regular video game sociopath and, whilst he doesn't enjoy it, he doesn't hate it either. When I said Aiden Pearce was the most boring video character I meant it; he has no personality, not even a negative one, there's just nothing going on in that little head of his except a serious revenge plot that never comes up for a breather.

That's another thing; this is a serious, serious game. So serious it's boring and whilst I understand it's a serious topic with serious consequences and serious things going on... there's a reason why, in the 'Assassins Creed' series, nobody liked Altair and everybody loved Ezio; he had a goddamned personality and a sense of humour to boot. I'm going to leave Aiden alone for a bit because he's had enough stick from me and instead I'll focus on the 'glued together with string and cheap sellotape' storyline. 'Watch Dogs' is a game that takes itself too seriously and the very least I was expecting from it was some substance that justified the setting and premise the developers had been cawing about this whole time, but no. Maybe I was being naive or expecting too much but I was genuinely looking forward to a game that grabbed an extremely important political issue by the horns and tackled it in a way that was well written, well thought out and well researched. Mass surveillance and living inside a society that is terrified of being observed, especially with the frequency of hacking scares and institutes like Anonymous should have been enough fodder for a fantastic and insightful game. If you want it to be an action/adventure game with a shit tonne of shooting and driving then fine, that's ok, you can have you fun with it but remember what makes a game memorable and stand apart from the competition. If you're having trouble remembering I'll give you a hint; it's not six shirts all layered on top of one another,  and constantly being on your mobile phone, even in the presence of friends and family. 

Watch Dogs never quite gets to where its going, it has a good idea but the writing is terribly weak and unfounded in reality, its one of those games where it's really fun as long as you're not looking for anything with meaning or personality. There are plenty of minor irritants in the game such as a lack of jumping, no, really and the inability to shoot whilst in a vehicle, although considering how difficult it is to effectively drive what feels like a metal skip on roads covered in black ice it probably would be impossible to shoot and drive at the same time anyway. Strangely, you also cannot attack pedestrians with melee attacks except a scripted animation of a takedown where you tackle someone, this would be reasonable if you couldn’t due this due to a ‘don’t beat up innocents’ rule but you can shoot them to death and with almost no consequence as police presence is extremely limited. Strangely, the police AI is also something to be wary of as they'll always turn up with a shoot to kill mentality and will never attempt to arrest you and, if you happen to see a civilian commit a crime, they'll never bother attempting to do anything about it. Frustratingly, whilst the police have absolutely no way of entering the water they do have the ability to locate you even when you're neatly tucked away behind several walls in what was, presumably, an impenetrable hiding fortress. 

Now, whilst the game is by no means short it may as well be because after a few hours you’ll have seen everything there is to be seen in terms of gameplay and missions. As if that's not bad enough there are no more skills to utilize and you're left to trek diligently onwards through a deplorable storyline as you're left with very little reason to continue playing unless you're a completionist. What this necessarily results in is a game which is extremely easy as, having unlocked all of your potential abilities, you’re now incredibly overpowered and fighting against easy enemies for the rest of the game. In order to upgrade your equipment you must procure yourself some money but that too is extremely simplistic as you can hack approximately 25% of all NPCs and quickly acquire masses of wealth with nothing to spend it on. Similarly, whilst I was expecting a glorious, sprawling open world of future day Chicago where I could go anywhere, do anything, hack everyone, what I was left with were very few and limited opportunities to actually be the magnificent hacker I supposedly was and whilst the city is certainly an open world experience, it’s not a very interesting one due to the lack of interaction. 

Watch Dogs is essentially only successful because it's a laugh. There's not much depth to it, the side missions are extremely irritating and repetitive though are essential for leveling up so you just kind of have to put up with it. There are some pretty annoying mini-games that are surprisingly frequent but tolerable but overall the game is lacking in personality, originality and intelligence. It feels as though 'Watch Dogs' has picked up loads of gameplay elements from a lot of other games, mashed them all together in a new setting, put in some awful driving mechanics and thrown in a lazy explanation for why you're on a hell sent vengeance mission where you can do whatever the hell you want. On a positive note, the game is sort of fun if you can get beyond all of its negative points and if you enjoy messing about and don't care about the substance behind it all then it's a good game for that purpose. But for a game that’s supposedly digging at the political issue of living in a surveillance state it comes across from the point of view of a child who only understands it as a way of reading bits of information about people and stealing their money. All in all, the writers appeared to have either played safe to the point of boring or they cobbled together something at the last minute and given this game was announced two years ago and was pushed back a further 6/7 months that seems fairly unlikely. What this game boils down to is your usual sub-standard action game that's all bark and no bite; nothing really grabbed me, nothing made it stand out and whilst I would play it if I was really tired and just wanted to dick about for a bit I would never sit down, engage with it, and love it to the end. It's just not that good of a game. 

The Good:

• Some fun gameplay elements
• Nice setting; futuristic Chicago is very cool
• The open world setting is good, though didn't take advantage of its setting
• Graphics are decent, could have been better for PS4/Xbox One though
• Nice mission variety
• Good stealth elements
• Understated but effective skill tree
• Very good animations
• Fantastic soundtrack
• Enemy randomization offers up new experiences

The Bad:

• Aiden Pearce
• Money is far too easy to obtain and becomes meaningless
• The driving is awful, unable to shoot from a vehicle
• No storyline, diaboloical writing, flimsy
• Terrible voice acting
• Side missions are irritating
• The game is both far too serious yet unintelligent
• Morality is ignored then scraped back to no avail
• The hacking is quite tedious and not very dynamic
• Police AI is irrational
• Gunplay overshadows the hacking aspects
• Dodgy checkpoints, a lot of mission restarts, lots of insta-fail missions.

The Score: 7/10

Final thoughts: "It's surprisingly average for an action game but seems to think it's better than it is, that's probably the advertising budget right there. Aiden is a chore to work with, I have never hated a character as much as this guy, apart from that guy from Soul Suspect... Simply, this feels like a game that any developer could make, change a few elements and re-release it as the next big thing. Sadly, this game just doesn't impact on me in the slightest."

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far)

• #5: Destiny 
• #4: Elder Scrolls Online 
• #3: The Sims 4 
• #2: Thief 
• #1: Watch Dogs

Among the Sleep - Review (PlayStation 4, Windows/Linux/OS X game)

There are always things we’re going to be afraid of, that much is certain, but it’s the things we are most uncertain of that tend to terrify or aggravate us the most. As children we lacked the understanding that we have now and trying to cope in a world where we’re unable to reason away the existence of monsters or understand the steps to take when you find yourself alone. This helplessness and vulnerability is the very core of what makes survival horror games so terrifying and usually this vulnerability is due to a lack of weapons, an abundance of darkness and a big splash of threat that is often unseen. In ‘Among The Sleep’, you’re dropped right back into the footy pyjamas of a toddler soon after his 2nd birthday party where he received a bite of cake and a slightly odd looking, talking teddy bear. You awake in the middle of the night to a strange commotion in your bedroom and, after you’ve been flung from your crib, you venture out into the dark corridors to find your mother for some much needed comfort. Unfortunately, she’s nowhere to be found. 

Developer: Krillbite Studio
Release date: May 29th 2014
Genre: Survival horror
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4,
ESRB: Rating pending (likely to be a 16+/Teen rating)

Playing as a toddler is in itself a novel experience but what is particularly appreciable is the way in which tasks we would find simple as an adult become an instant challenge for a toddler such as the opening of doors. Although the mechanics can be a little clunky there’s a sort of realism to this as by dragging around say, a chair, you’re not only struggling to walk on two feet but you have to move a heavy object whilst you’re at it. In 'Among the Sleep' you have the ability to switch between walking, running and crawling and quite appropriately the crawling is a much faster way of getting around though, down there, you cannot interact with anything. This presents a problem in that you are significantly more vulnerable when you’re unable to see where you’re headed, interact with things or use your ‘flashlight’ which is actually a light emitted from hugging your teddy bear, awwh. ‘Among the Sleep’ has a fair few puzzles that are more about getting to your destination than solving anything too complex and the game itself is running off a ‘find three items’ objective that are obtained by going through very different areas. You start out in your house, naturally, and then move through increasingly more surreal areas that are wonderfully varied and consistently offer you new and interesting places to explore.

The places you tend to explore are, unsurprisingly, dark. By dark I mean, 'can barely see your hand in front of your face', kind of dark, so that teddy bear hugging I mentioned earlier is an extremely useful feature. As you can only hug your bear when you’re standing upright what tends to occur is a trade-off between being able to see where it is you’re going and getting there quickly enough. This is a surprisingly stressful situation to be placed in constantly as once you’re left alone in the darkness your over-active child’s imagination comes to life and things appear far much terrifying than they usually would do. Whilst the game isn’t necessarily full on horror there’s enough of an atmosphere that will drive you onwards and ensure you never want to linger too long for fear of what’s lurking in the shadows. The game tends to put you through phases of thinking there’s something there, to believing it’s just your imagination, to making you definitely think there’s something there and this rollercoaster of fear and paranoia will make you constantly question everything around you. 

What I’ve yet to mention is how fantastic the game actually looks and almost everything is interactive whether that’s a piece of fruit in the kitchen or a soft toy in your bedroom; everything can be picked up, carried and put wherever the hell you want it to go. All chairs can be dragged around whether you need to move them or not, drawers and cupboards can be opened and generally there’s a huge amount of detail. Even in places you’re not really supposed to explore you’ll still find a very respectable level of furnishings whilst the textures and detail have not been skimped on adding to a rather realistic, if slightly cartoony, feel. The game’s appearance also significantly contributes to the atmosphere of the game and little things like well-timed thunderclaps, partially lit corridors and the ability to hide under furniture at any given time with no prompting results in you questioning yourself about whether you need to be hiding or not. You’ll often second guess yourself in this game and there are some stupidly terrifying moments such as turning a corner and seeing a dark figure looming over you, just around the corner and out of sight, you turn to stumble away and then realise it’s, well, just a coat on a coat rack. You rarely get those experiences playing as an adult as you would almost immediately see its lack of a face but, as a toddler, all you get is the bottom of a coat and a pair of shoes and this whole new perspective puts you at a disadvantage even for seasoned survival horror gamers.

Don’t let me convince you that this game is all about running from your own shadow however as, trust me, there’s something out there to get you and though I won’t spoil it for you it’s definitely something that makes its presence known. Try as you might you cannot deny the tell-tale rattling of a door handle as you watch something unseen opening a previously looked door from the other side. Neither can you ignore turning around to see that, somehow, something you thought was inanimate has moved and now it’s standing right behind you, staring at you, still unmoving and leaving you very little choice but to slide around it, desperately hoping it doesn’t decide to wake up and do anything else whilst your back is turned. 

Overall

‘Among the Sleep’ is certainly a memorable game and a very unique experience that is well worth a look at, even if you don’t usually play horror games. Whilst the storyline tends to take a backseat during the main chunk of the game it is generally explained through the opening and closing cutscenes with some general illusions to what’s going on as you play. The game is by no means dull however and though it is in no way comparable to gore fests such as 'Amnesia' and 'Outlast' it’s deserving of its place as a horror game due to the undeniably spooky ambiance and the constant fear that something’s about to jump out at you. There are mechanical issues with the game, particularly when climbing on objects, but these can be generally excused as the rest of the game is very attractive with a strong, vibrant pallet and lashings of attention to detail. Occasionally I encountered some frustrating moments of not knowing where to go but generally the game is just about the right level of difficulty and it was probably just me struggling to put 2+2 together though, at times, the puzzles were somewhat lame. The game is unfavourably short at around 3 hours long and I would have definitely preferred a longer game with more build up and some more scares but, overall, the upcoming DLC should settle down the need to spend longer in this oversized world.

The Good: 

• Brilliant storyline, thought provoking ending
• Very atmospheric with a constant eerieness
• Interactive world and puzzle elements are a nice addition
• Looks very clean cut with bold, vibrant graphics
• Sounds fantastic with brilliant voice acting and high quality ambient sounds
• Original concept that was risky for developers but worked out great
• Few scare tactics used, instead more of an investigation into fear
• Playing as a toddler offered up some very interesting and new situations

The Bad: 

• Could have had 'more going on' in it
• Climbing mechanics need to be worked on
• Should have been longer with more build up
• The teddy bear is more creepy than comforting

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "The ending is extremely poignant and made me glad I continued all the way through. I loved the concept of playing as a toddler and am extremely glad somebody took the initiative to put this into a game, now I want to watch everybody I know play it."

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far) #2: Thief

The game that has so far proven to be the second most disappointing game of the year was 'Thief', a much anticipated revamp of the cult classic series that was kicking about in the late 90s and early 2000s. Whilst some praised its stealth gameplay and graphics, not all were as easily impressed and fans of the original series were unsurprisingly unsatisfied with initial details such as the replacement of the protagonists voice actor and an unimaginative storyline. Here I'll look into what made this game so disappointing and what has rendered this game worthy of this placement in this list. 
 

#2: Thief

Developer: Eidos Montreal
Genre: Stealth
Release date: February 25h 2014
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.
ESRB: M - Mature

In the end, 'Thief' turned out to be a watered down clone of 'Dishonoured' that insulted fans of the original series and bored those new to the game. I’m of the latter group; I never played the original Thief but knew of it and knew how much beloved it was but, without playing it, I can only talk about this 2014 revamp from my direct experience. To begin with, it doesn’t feel particularly up to date as everything is extremely linear and limited whilst I was expecting a more fluid, open world environment with some minor limitations. Worse still, the environments you’re limited to are extremely bland with hardly anything to interact with and without much room for experimentation leaving you very little point in trying to be creative about the way in which you go about things. Garrett, a character with very little personality and shoddy voice acting, is supposed to have a huge variety of gadgets and tools that you may select from and let loose upon the world but there’s very little opportunity to use them to their full potential. Almost every single gadget may only be used in one particular way so, again, your creativity is squashed and your game experience forced through a narrow tunnel of ‘the way it’s supposed to be done’. This claustrophobic feeling of restriction extends into the main missions where everything is rigid, linear and scripted which is strangely at odds with the more flexible and ‘thank god I can breathe for a moment’ style of the side missions. The side missions, though better than the main ones, still are by no means perfect as everything is split into segments due to the huge amount of loading screens you’ll encounter that totally destroys any illusion of an open world game. 
 

I haven’t actually mentioned the entire point of the game yet and that’s being a Thief, shock horror surprise, so you’d expect a pretty robust thieving and looting system that would justify its position as a strong, substantial stealth game. Well prepare to be disappointed, some more, as Thief is less about being a professional thief and more about picking up any old shit you find lying around that may be of worth. It’s rather like Garrett has found a way to curb his uncontrollable kleptomania by taking it on as a profession as rather than saving up all his skills and energy for one big heist he tends to just grab anything within reach, particularly low valued items that nobody else would bother themselves with. Once again, the influence of ‘Dishonoured’ reared its head as whenever you pick something up its converted into money leaving you with grabbing bits worth 3 gold, 5 gold, 7 gold and so on. At this point, Thief’s lack of individual identity is becoming self-evident and you’re probably wondering what sets it apart from the crowd. Well, not much actually. The storyline is very longwinded and seems to just go on and on endlessly with no sign of stopping and, when it finally gets there, the ending is weak and unsatisfying. 

As a next gen console game it’s also graphically inferior with nothing particularly attractive or noteworthy and the overall appearance is simply bland, the controls are clunky and slow leaving you hobbling rather than sleuthing and the FPS is diabolical with long loading times and plenty of stuttering during cinematics and periods of lots of activity such as combat. Oh and by the way, the combat too is just like the rest of the game; slow, irritating, restrictive and clunky. It’s as though the developers attempted to put in some action game features and just ended up with something that was a mix of awkward button smashing, poorly animated takedowns and, due to the loading screens, almost no way to flee effectively from a situation. In fact, the only redeeming feature about the combat system in ‘Thief’ is that you can bypass it entirely and opt for sneaking around enemies instead of confronting them head on. Overall, Thief is unable to live up to the expectation of becoming the next big stealth game and just feels far too restrictive and uninspired. It’s boring, bland, slow and with very little to lift it up from a pit of poor storytelling, poor gameplay and a poor engine. If you are a diehard lover of this genre of game then I’m sure you’ll find some way of getting some fun out of it solely because it’s a new game but I’d recommend waiting until the price drops first as, in this form, it’s simply not worth your money. 

The Good:

• Some fairly entertaining moments
• Can be quite cinematic, when it wants to be. 
• It's a stealth game and the industry need more stealth games
• The graphics are ok, but not for a next-gen game.

The Bad:

• Substandard AI
• Set paths leaving you very room to move
• Awful voice acting and lip syncing
• Agonizingly boring storyline
• Clunky controls
• Very poor FPS especially during busy periods and cutscenes
• Weapons and gadgets offer little room for creativity
• Garrett is a pretty bad thief; more of a klepto than a professional
• Very little interaction in the environment
• Not actually an open world experience
• Spits on the name of the original series.

The Score: 3/10

Final thoughts: "Thief is a decidedly unworthy edition to the cult classic series of games and will disappoint not only long standing fans but those new to the series as well. Whilst it's a reasonably alright stealth game it's not a patch on 'Dishonoured' and lacks some core fundamentals of a good stealth game such as intelligent AI and flexibility in what you can do and where you can go."  

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far)

• #5: Destiny 
• #4: Elder Scrolls Online 
• #3: The Sims 4 
• #2: Thief 
• #1: Watch Dogs

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far) - #3: The Sims 4

Up next in my list of the disappointing games of 2014 (so far) is 'The Sims 4'; a game that was quite simply a step back in the much beloved series of life simulation games. Players have been dissatisfied with the conduct of EA for quite a while and the release of SimCity 2013 did nothing to quench that, Sims 4 was due to be EAs next big thing but, sadly, cracks were already starting to appear as more and more details about the game were leaked. 

Fans were furious at the lack of toddlers, dishwashers and swimming pools, a fair enough complaint, though they’d probably have been released as an expansion pack that's still beside the point as they're all revenue chasing scoundrels etc. etc. But, ultimately, I would have gotten over it if the rest of the game was fantastic. However, it's not, and there are problems that destroy what made 'The Sims' such a fantastic series of games and which consequentially renders the game unplayable for someone like myself.

#3: The Sims 4

Developer: EA Maxis and The Sims Studio
Genre: Simulation
Release date: September 4/5th 2014

Platforms: Microsoft Windows
ESRB: T - Teen



To begin with, 'The Sims 4' has an extremely tiny world map that is ugly, unrealistic and uncharacteristically limited for a modern-gen Sims game. For instance, you can only visit one small section at a time that consists of roughly 5 lots and where the rest of what you see are all decorative areas, often with rather flat graphics when you go too far out, and none of which you can visit from this location. To visit other buildings such as next door you must go through a loading screen which is unusual, considering the size and scale of the 'Sims 3' neighbourhoods that were utterly seamless and without a single loading screen. Even stranger, in the Sims 4 the Sims no longer progress but simply age; a strange mixture of the previous two games resulting in a map of dead Sims that never did anything with their lives, I could reflect on the realism of that but it’s probably best I don’t.

Whilst I disliked the constant evolving world of the Sims 3 as it allowed me little to no control over my entire neighbourhood, this is not what I wanted. What is the point in allowing time to progress for aging only? For some reason the dynamic story progression has been stripped and yet the micro-management style Sims 2 neighbourhoods are a no-go here either since everybody would be dead by the time you go to play them. For those attempting to play a thriving neighbourhood of individual personalities and complex relationships; that’s not going to happen, for those who enjoy an almost obsessive system of creating perfect Sims and perfect houses… you too will be disappointed. 

Whilst the designing of houses is ever so slightly superior to the Sims 3 and a few new additions have been slapped in like picking a whole room up and plopping it somewhere else, everything else is basically the same, but with a lot less objects and a limit of just 3 floors. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the build mode and it looks like it’s been refreshed for the new game but that’s kind of it really, things which I used to enjoy have been removed like terrain tools and the infamous ‘create-a-style’ feature which I fell in love with after I finally got used to it. The major problem lies with a lack of choice in objects and everything tends to feel extremely bare and a bit boxy due to the new furniture styles that make me feel as though I'm playing in a plastic dollhouse.Your options when creating a sim are limited as well with significantly less clothing and hair options to previous base games and whilst the intuitive click and drag style of designing the shape of your Sims features is a fantastic edition there exists gaping hole where so many features have been removed. Features such as body hair, favourite food/music/colour, multi-toned hair, skin sliders, zodiac signs and a few others have been taken out of the game for which is a blow for those who enjoyed that added level of personalization.

The Sims 4 is not a 'bad game' by a long shot and for those who are first coming into the series it will seem fantastic as the Sims series has always been at the front of life simulation games. However, for long standing fans of the series it will feel as though the game has been severely crippled with the game not taking advantage of more than 4GB of RAM and with dozens and dozens of removed features. I truly wanted to love this game as there are some fantastic additions such as multi-tasking, moods and an overall re-vamped apperance of the Sims themselves. Whilst there are plenty of good aspects it’s overall lesser quality results in a game that's been needlessly stripped back, emptied of content and severely simplified. As usual, I guess we'll have to wait for a dozen or so expansion packs to render this game playable yet with unavoidable problems like an excessive number of loading screens and extremely tiny maps I know that for many this is simply not good enough.

The Good:

• New UI is less invasive and nicely toned down
• The Sims themselves look brilliant, flawlessly animated, very emotional.
• If you enjoy the style, the graphics look amazing
• Sims are more intelligent with a lot more personality
• Build Mode is somewhat improved
• Less juggling of motives
• Charming in places
• Some interesting and quirky bits of content

The Bad:

• No Create-a-style
• An excessive number of loading screens for every little detail
• Sims just disappear whenever they leave the house to go to work.
• A lack of content in buy mode.
• Unrealistic, small world map.
• Create-A-Sim has a lot less options such as clothing/hair/extras
• A very limited and restricted world that feels empty constantly
• Anti-climatic life events that have very little effect on your Sim
• These 89 removed features

The Score: 6/10

Final Thoughts: "As many have said, this feels a lot like Sims 2.5 and whilst I prefer a lack of story progression I don't see the point in restricting playable areas to just 5 or 6 lots. I used to enjoy Sims for the creativity and perfectionism it allowed me but now there's very little opportunity to create my perfect world."  

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far)

• #5: Destiny 
• #4: Elder Scrolls Online 
• #3: The Sims 4 
• #2: Thief 
• #1: Watch Dogs

Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey - Quick Review (Free iOS, Android, Windows/Mac/Linux game)

It’s been a long time since I genuinely enjoyed playing a word game as they tend to make me think of something from the GCSE bitesize website I used to have to suffer through at school. At long last however, a game that requires me to string letters together to form words has broken me out of this mental block and it took barely any time at all for me to be fully engaged in this cute, well-crafted and charming game.

Developer: Bacon Bandit Games
Genre: Word game
Release date: Feburary 5th 2014
Platforms: iOS and Android
Age rating: Rated 9+ for the following: Mild horror themes, mild cartoon/fantasy violence.

'Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey' is a fresh and vibrant game with plenty of adventure game features such as quests, turn based combat and a stack load of upgrades, potions and items to help you advance your way through its numerous stages. To play a word game that’s not just about the spelling but about the overall gaming experience is such a relief as it’s very easy for a game to get wrapped up in its educational value and forget that games are supposed to be fun and engaging. As you progress through the game you must spell out words, the letters you pick and the length of the word all have a direct impact on the amount of damage you’ll do to monsters so the better the word, the higher the damage. It’s very easy to get caught up at the start of the game in bashing out some simple words but the difficulty level is quickly ramped up and you must adjust to this by exercising those brain muscles and coming up with better, more complex words. In this sense the game maintains its stance as a game about learning since it encourages you to polish your English and expand your vocabulary but, thankfully, this has no negative impact on how enjoyable the game is. 

My only current irk with the game is that many words are unrecognized and, whilst these are being patched over, this could prove irritating to players. The reason for this mostly seems to be that this is a game from North America and many of the words not included are British but, to be fair, there are still over 190,000 words in the game and the developers are working to update the dictionary. Something to look forward in this game is not just these guaranteed dictionary updates but the likelihood of additional levels and features so even when you’ve completed the game there’s still reason to keep checking back. Currently though the amount of content available is very impressive and, though there is some 'pay to win' features you don't have to buy any of them and everything can be obtained legitimately. Besides, it's a free game so you can forgive them for attempting to get even a little bit of their investment back. As you move through the levels you'll notice a large array of enemies and backgrounds which greatly enhances the overall experience as one too many mobile games tend to have repeating, scrolling background and listless, cloned creatures so it's refreshing to see someone put some hard work into the atmosphere and content of their game.

The room for expansion in this game is fairly large as even though the game currently remains simple but not simplistic it would be still be nice to see a few extra mechanics to make combat a little more varied. Overall, this is a reasonably challenging game that’s extremely fun and very professional looking. You wouldn’t believe this was an indie free game as it is incredibly polished with crystal clear graphics and fun, upbeat music. There’s no timer on battles so there’s very little pressure to defeat the monsters quickly making this a casual game that is as fast paced as you want it to be so and its easy to use controls, simple game logic and its overall charming nature makes 'Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey' very accessible for not just grownups but kids too. I highly recommend this game for anyone to play.

The Good: 

• Looks fantastic, vibrant and professional
• Makes spelling fun! No, really.
• Good assortment of enemies, all of whom are well animated
• Detailed levels in different locations
• Use of quests, storyline and items gives the game a nice RPG feel
• Quite challenging, use of items essential to not die
• Achievements for added playability
• Very accessible, easy to get into
• Lots of stages and I liked the inclusion of a world map
  

The Bad: 

• Could use different attacks to make combat more fun
• Needs a bit of bug fixing here and there

The Score: 9/10

Final thoughts: "This has changed my opinion of word games, this is a really fun game. ...I can't believe they're not charging people for this."